Abstract
Abstract This work presents the biodiesel production from soybean oil with bioethanol from sugar cane in presence of sodium hydroxide as catalyst. The purpose of the present work is to show a comparative study, simulation and experiments, of an efficient process using reactive distillation (RD) columns applied to biodiesel production. Two systems were used in order to present the most efficient process. The main equipments of the first system were a pre-reactor (batch stirred tank reactor: BSTR) and a packed RD column filled with glass rings and the second system were a pre-reactor (plug flow reactor: PFR) and a RD column with ten plates. Experimental design was used in order to optimize the process variables of biodiesel production and the best ester (biodiesel) conversion was 99.84 wt.% after 6 minutes of reaction, obtained with the RD sieve tray column. Simulations of both RD columns were carried out in Aspen Plus software and these simulations are in agreement with experimental results.
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